Central Michigan uses bye week to prepare for Iowa Hawkeyes

Al Goldis | AP PhotoCentral Michigan was routed by Michigan State in Week 2, but the Chippewas are coming off a bye week and feel prepared for an upset heading into Saturday's road game at Iowa.

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — When Michigan State came to town two weeks ago, the Spartans served Central Michigan University a Big Ten-sized lesson.

The Chippewas are hoping a bye week’s worth of studying helped it sink in.

Central Michigan coach Dan Enos feels good about where the Chippewas stand coming out of their bye week, heading into Saturday’s showdown with the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

“I think we have a good plan (for Iowa),” Enos said. “We have a blueprint, we just need our players to go out and execute it on Saturday.”

CMU has played Iowa twice in its history, with a pair of losses in 1994 and 1998.

However, this year the Chippewas are taking on a Hawkeyes team that eked out close wins over Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa, while losing to Iowa State.

“One thing I know from playing against Iowa for many, many years is that they’re very, very good at what they do,” Enos said. “They understand their strengths in what they run, and they know their weaknesses and work very hard in preparing for them.”

CMU's preparation has come in the form of getting its playmakers back on track.

In the season opener, Chippewas tailbacks Zurlon Tipton and Anthony Garland combined to rush for 291 yards and four touchdowns, but they were held to 76 yards in the loss to Michigan State.

Quarterback Ryan Radcliff followed up a strong performance in the opener by throwing two interceptions against the loss to the Spartans, an issue Enos said the Chippewas have addressed.

“He needs to play much better,” Enos said. “He needs to stay in the pocket, and when guys are open we can’t miss them. When we play teams like Michigan State and Iowa, we don’t need him to play good. We need him to play great.”

Defensively, CMU has to gameplan for a big Iowa offensive line that’ll throw out a variety of running backs, while Mark Weisman brings a power-running aspect to the Hawkeyes.

“I think we’re going to need to prepare for (multiple backs),” Enos said. “(Weisman) came in at tailback and did a good job. He ran real hard. … I thought he ran real physical and brought some things to the table.”

The game is scheduled to run on the Big Ten Network and kicks off Saturday at 12 p.m. Eastern time.